Connecting with friends, spending time together, and sharing experiences is all part of my focus for celebrating my 60th year ❤️ So in November Dave, Ruby and I headed up to the Lakes to spend a few wonderful days with our good friends JJ, Judy and Jessica. - and the new addition of Benji the dog - staying at our trusted favourite, Old Thrang at Chapel Stile.
Arriving mid afternoon there was just enough daylight left for a lovely local walk, watching the sun setting on the hills beyond. Very cold, but beautiful 🤩
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| Beautiful Langdale Pikes in the distance |
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| Sun setting over the fells |
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| Which way? Rubes wanting to head up the valley 😃 |
The following day we were super excited as Marie and Declan were joining us, driving down from their lovely house in Skinburness 😃 Once organised we all headed out on one of a favourite walks, up through the Chapel Stile quarry, over to Little Langdale, crossing Slater’s Bridge, a quick drop into Cathedral Quarry, and back across the fields to Elterwater, to the wonderful Britannia Inn. The walk is beautiful, with stunning landscapes that change colour with the seasons, and loads of interesting features on route.
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| The obligatory photo of us on the wibbly wobbly Slater’s Bridge |
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| Enjoying being outdoors 😃 |
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| The gang! With Little Langdale Tarn in the background |
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| Cathedral Cave |
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| Pottering back over the fields from Little Langdale to Elterwater |
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| The sun was starting to go down - time for a drink! |
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| Lovely end to the walk in the Britannia Inn 😃 |
Arriving back at Thrang at the end of a day out on the hills is always a delight. Dave is chief fire maker, and always manages to get a fabulous blaze going in the original 16th centre range - time to warm up and dry off any wet socks and boots 🤣
Dinner at Thrang is always an occasion - sitting around the cosy dining table, sharing delicious food and wine, stories of the day’s events, and much fun and laughter is always a delight 😃 While Dave, Declan and JJ lounged in front of the fire, myself, Marie, Jess and Judy “got ahead” with the dinner preps, and then cracked open the fizz to toast my 60th birthday 🥳 Marie, as usual, outshone us all - changing into her fabulous sparkly skirt! Mexican was the theme for our dinner, and the jackfruit chilli, beef and chorizo chilli, and cheesy quesadillas went down particularly well 🤣 Our (first) attempt at making churros wasn’t the success we had hoped - just means we’ll need to try again in the future 🤣
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| Hogging the fire 🤣 |
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| Lots to laugh about for us girls 🤣 |
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| Dinner is served! |
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| Marie - very happy with the churros 😃 |
The following morning sadly Declan and Marie had to leave us to head off home to Nottingham 😟 That left the rest of us to head out on a beautiful walk over to Loughrigg Tarn, ending up at the fabulous Chesters cafe at Skelwith Bridge for a late lunch - delicious 🤤 A lovely amble back then along the river to Elterwater, with a bit of drama thrown in where one of the bridges had been washed away with the recent floods - it necessitated a huge leap - and poor Ruby struggled 😢
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| Benji taking Judy for a walk 🤣 |
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| Loughrigg Tarn with Langdale Pikes in the distance |
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| Old friends ❤️ |
The final walk of the weekend was over by Rydal Water. Climbing up to the old Coffin Route we made our way along to Rydal Hall, had a good look around the formal gardens, then poked our heads into the gardens of Rydal Mount, the former home of William Wordsmith. Returning on the lower route around Rydal Water and back to the car, it was a wonderful and interesting walk, full of nature, natural landscapes, and literary history.
A trip to Thrang wouldn’t be complete without a shopping trip to Ambleside. Despite lots of browsing, very little was actually bought - but Judy couldn’t resist the lure of the sheepskin shop (again 🤣), and came away with a lovely pair of boots 😃
What a fabulous w/end it was - such lovely memories 😊 That churros photo has made me LOL 😂 think the fizz/wine played a part in my enthusiasm! 🤣
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